Muhammed Ejaz at a police station in Lahore on Sunday, Apil 27, 2014. AFP

LAHORE, Pakistan — A Pakistani man has confessed to the brutal murders of three gay men he met online, saying he wanted to send a message about the “evils” of homosexuality.

AFP

Muhammed Ejaz with his head shrouded at a police station in Lahore on Sunday, April 27, 2014.

Muhammed Ejaz, a 28-year-old paramedic, expressed remorse over the killings but said he was acting to stop wrongdoing, though police allege he had sex with each of his victims before killing them, reports AFP.

The killings, which occured in March and April, sent shockwaves through the underground gay community of the eastern city of Lahore, which fears Ejaz could be hailed as a hero in a conservative Islamic society where sodomy is punishable by up to 10 years in jail.

Police say the victims were a middle-aged retired army Major and two other men, both in their twenties. All three were found with their necks broken and had been sedated.

Ejaz said he had become concerned that Lahore was being overrun by homosexuals. “They are spreading evil and transmitting diseases,” he said. “They cannot control themselves.”

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Ejaz, who is married and has two infant children, said his family knew nothing of what he had done and insisted that he was not gay himself.

He said his hatred for gays stemmed from being molested by an older boy when he was 10-years old.

One member of the local LGBT community told AFP that Ejaz had been a sexually active member of the gay community for several months, and was likely “motivated by self-hatred and internalized homophobia.”